The invention concerns an ergometric, stationary piece of exercise apparatus with a manually-operated (by hand or foot) drive with two drive elements that are operated alternately, wherein the drive is joined to a flywheel by a gear mechanism, as well as to a measuring unit for measuring the drive force applied to the drive, or the torsional force (torque) related to the drive force, and a measuring device for measuring the position in motion, in particular angular position, of the drive. The drive elements are preferably pedals, similar to those on a bicycle, but can however also be of a different kind, such as e.g. the stepping platforms of a so-called stairmaster.
A piece of training equipment of this kind is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,303. The moment is measured by means of resistance strain gauges that are attached to loaded components of the pedal configuration in order to measure parameters such as moment, work, power, angular velocity and time per revolution. In this way measurement of the whole moment, as well as of the moments on the left and right pedals (left and right legs respectively) is carried out; from this, work performed and power can be calculated.
EP 0 925 096 B1 describes an electronic exercise system with a monitor for physical activity that has a sensor and display device, which records and displays physical data during a first period. The exercise apparatus has a resistance generator, e.g. an eddy-current brake, and a control that uses the data displayed about physical activity to control the operation of the exercise apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,251 describes an exercise machine in which a seat and a spring-loaded rotating shaft are attached in an elongated frame. The rotating shaft is joined to a flywheel and has resistance devices. Disclosed as resistance devices are e.g. a centrifugal brake, a wind wheel-like, open-worked flywheel, as well as and eddy-current brake wheel, into which a wind wheel is integrated.
Further exercise devices are described in US 2002/0004439 A1, US 2007/0117680 A1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,611,759 and 5,749,807.
A measurement of moment on the chain of a bicycle emerges from JP 05 201374 A. A tension detector is arranged on the upper chain section to measure the elasticity, namely a gear wheel that touches the chain on the outside and a resistance strain gauge that measures the force exercised on the gear wheel by the chain.
DE 199 19 154 A1 describes a method and a device for applying a preload force to an endless drive element, in particular a chain. A gripper is pressed by means of a chain tensioning device onto the chain from the outside with a predetermined force. The preload force on the chain so arising is set via control electronics depending on sensor data concerning oscillation data or other standard parameters.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,245 describes a device for measuring mechanical work and power, which is transferred onto a drive element between two drive wheels. A force measuring element with a roller is pressed by means of spring force against the drive element, and the degree of displacement serves to measure the tensile force transferred. Various embodiments contain a roller touching on the on the inside or the outside, or a combination of at least one roller in the inside and one on the outside.
Further measuring equipments for measuring the drive moment in a drive system, e.g. a bicycle, are presented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,086 and US 2007/0099735 A1.
DE 42 27 586 A1 shows a pedal exercise device with separate force measurement for the two pedal arms, namely by means of a resistance strain gauge on each pedal arm, and with an angle transmitter, through which an evaluation of the path of motion is made possible, e.g. as a polar diagram. DE 44 35 174 A1 additionally suggests arranging the resistance strain gauge diagonally on the pedal arm in question.
Further proposals for force measurement in the operation of pedal motion are described in US 2007/0149364 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,481, WO 02/47551 A2 and EP 1 362 552 A1.
These known exercise and measuring apparatuses aim to measure the force or torque expended by the person training by various methods, which are nevertheless often time-consuming and complex. The known methods are particularly time-consuming if a differentiated view of various sections of the process, namely a breakdown between the two feet (or the two hands on hand-operated devices), is desired.